August 21st, 2014 by Stu

I guess when you’re patrolling towering mountains and endless stretches of off-road terrain, you kind of need one of these trail-rated, Baja 1000-tested Raptors to get the job done. I would be absolutely terrified to find one of these bad boys creeping up on my rear view. Looks positively menacing doesn’t it?

August 19th, 2014 by Stu

Ran into this mutt of a rat rod in Westhapmton over the weekend. It merges parts and looks from a host of donors. The homage to woodies is pretty freeking cool and not something I have seen before in this breed of home-brewed vehicle. The engine if a six from an old Ford, the leaf suspension from a Buick, tailgate from a Studebaker. A true masterpiece of backyard construction, the owner tells me it took him about 6 weeks to build. This is automotive character at its finest folks.

August 7th, 2014 by Stu

The Eleven, produced between ’56 and ’58, was built by Lotus founder and lightweight sherpa Colin Chapman to enter the 1500 cc class. The low-drag sports car was sold for the street with a 36HP Ford engine and drum brakes. Club and Le Mans versions featured more powerful Coventry-Climax engines, disc brakes and (for the Le Mans) a De Dion rear axle. The Le Mans kissed 165 mph in 1955!! Only 270 Elevens were actually built, making them quite collectable (and valuable) today. To give you a sense of what these Elevens go for, this naked aluminum Series 1 (chassis #189), with an illustrious racing pedigree, fetched a cool $126K at an RM auction in 2012.

You don’t see one of these Elevens everyday, let alone outside of a general store in East Hampton. I can’t tell if it’s real or a kit car [lord knows there are plenty of people making them], but who really cares. It’s wicked cool to look at and likely an absolute blast to drive.

July 24th, 2014 by Emir

Spotted this rare, Elite-based Lotus Eclat in Bushwick. Amazingly, the classic Brit managed to survive all these years despite its poorly thought out felt insulation positioned between the chassis and fastback fiberglass body. The felt historically ended up acting like a sponge on Series 1 models, trapping water and eventually causing structural corrosion to the rear chassis. Luckily for this weathered yellow Brooklyn native, this was one of the Series 2 cars fitted with a galvanised chassis. Check out the window…she’s for sale!! As Jalopnik will tell you, buyer beware.